Meet Michael Nickoloff, our Featured Employee of the Month!

Yakima, WA – Borton & Sons, Inc. has many things to be thankful for this time of year, especially our long term key employees that make this place run on a daily basis. This month, we’d like to recognize Michael Nickoloff for all of his efforts over the past 16 years of being a part of our Borton Family.

Michael, hired October 1st of 1999, has been a Sales Account Manager since hired, and has had an extremely busy schedule. He handles many accounts including a number of major retail chains and market wholesalers, as well as national brokerage companies in the domestic markets throughout the United States. He also manages the handling of most major purchasing of all needed products to supplement the Sales program, such as Navel Oranges.

Michael’s career started in 1981 upon graduation from WSU with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Economics. “I always tell people it really started from birth. We grew up on an apple ranch in Wapato, WA where my family ran a growing and packing operation and sold apples under the Nickoloff and Grandpa’s Choice labels” stated Michael. “We also grew peaches, plums, cherries and pears” he said. While in school at WSU, Michael came back to Wapato during the summer months to run a fruit stand to start his sales career. “It was then I realized my passion was in selling apples, and I knew I wanted to do this for a living” Michael said.

Upon graduation, Michael moved to California to work for one of the largest marketing cooperatives in the 1980’s, Blue Anchor, Inc. He started in inventory control, did some exporting, moved into a sales assistant role, eventually taking over sales to many major chain stores and major wholesale markets in 1983. From there, he moved to San Francisco in 1986 to work as a broker in the San Francisco Wholesale Market, honing his skills in many new items such as potatoes, onions, avocados, citrus, and many vegetable items sold to all wholesalers in those markets. Moving back to Washington in 1992, Michael started his own brokerage company selling apples, onions, asparagus, and potatoes.

Michael has been married this year for 20 years to his beautiful wife Maude Nickoloff, raising and loving 4 children, 5 grandchildren, 3 horses, 6 dogs, and 4 cats over the many years. “My love of the Lord and the love of being in a business that I truly enjoy, fuels me each day to do everything I do. I feel blessed to be doing something I love” Michael said.

Michael is such an asset to our company. His hard work and determination in just making things happen is truly admiring. Thank You Michael for all you do, you are a major part of our team here and we appreciate all of it!